How the Economics of Renewable Energy Have Been Validated

Jeff Siegel is the cofounder and managing editor of Green Chip Stocks, an investment advisory service that focuses exclusively on renewable energy and organic food markets. He will be guest blogging on TreeHugger regularly.

As we get closer and closer to the next election, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the majority of the voting public is extremely concerned about energy security and climate change. How else do you explain the fact that all the candidates, on both sides of the aisle, are touting climate change and renewable energy initiatives?

But the reality is, no matter who moves into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and no matter how much legislation gets kicked around on the Hill, if the economics cannot support the large-scale integration of renewable energy, it simply will not happen.

So it should be with great enthusiasm that today, we can prove the economic superiority of renewable energy to non-renewable energy.

Show Me the Data!Wearing the label of environmentalist has never been easy. Over the past few decades especially, just uttering the words global warminghttp://www.ipcc.ch/ or renewable energy brought forth an avalanche of skepticism and hostility. Most of which has been based more on social or political philosophy than on actual data.

But you see, it’s that very data that we as environmentalists must embrace in order to get the message out in a logical and rational way. That’s why I’ve spent years analyzing real data. Not just the randomness that comes from mainstream media sources. And it is through this data that I realized something very important. I realized that no matter how much the talk show bullies, armchair analysts and outright deniers try to slow progress, they can’t magically change the fundamentals of supply and demand. And this, more than anything else, is why we’re now seeing the beginning of a transitional energy economy--one that will take us from an oil-slicked, coal-fired obscenity to a clean and green renewable energy future.

Validating Renewable EnergyToday’s global community consumes more energy than it sustainably produces. And because most of this energy comes from finite resources, simply increasing supplies of these resources is not an option. But large-scale renewable energy integration is. And that is why smart investors are evaluating and investing in renewable energy. Because when it comes to long-term value, there’s no market with more potential than this one.

So over the next few weeks, I’m going to share with you the same data I’ve been using to successfully defend and validate this market for nearly a decade--as well as help investors profit from the inevitable success of the renewable energy sector.

We’ll discuss the future of oil, and how its inability to keep up with demand will usher in new transportation technologies that are not only cleaner--but cheaper! I’ll also share with you some data that questions our so-called abundant supplies of coal. It turns out that there’s one very major detail that coal advocates have conveniently ignored while touting coal as a long-term, viable solution to our energy crisis. Once you see the real data on coal, you’ll have the opportunity to further validate the inevitable demise of coal-fired power plants.

Now that’s something both environmentalists and responsible renewable energy investors can be happy about!